Memories
by SenatorSolo
Summary: Torchwood stumbles upon a rare artifact that the Doctor wants more than anything to get his hands on.  Best friends collide over what is best for the sake of the universe and new friends may develop into something more.  T for language/innuendo
1. Rift Activity

Note: This takes place during the first season of Torchwood before Out of Time.

* * *

Rift Activity

* * *

Torchwood had been quiet. Nothing too out of the ordinary had been happening lately. There had been a few weevil attacks, but that was little to worry about. They were always going rogue and attacking someone or something. Tosh sat at her desk, monitoring rift activity as usual. She kept staring over at Owen, who was, as usual, completely oblivious to her wandering eye. Ianto was making coffee, extra strong just in case something was to happen. Jack had closed himself in his office, not paying attention to any of his surroundings. The others were unsure of what exactly Jack was doing, but they all agreed that it was better not to ask. Sometimes Jack just needed to be alone. Owen couldn't stop staring at Gwen, absentmindedly twirling a scalpel between his fingers. Tosh was sure that he was going to cut off one of his fingers. Gwen was pacing back and forth, her mind on the encounter that she and Owen had had just nights before. It was wrong, she knew, and she had Rhys, but there was just something so alluring about Owen that she couldn't resist.

As if on cue, Tosh's monitor started to beep. "We've got rift activity," she said, putting on her headset and cross-referencing her data points. "I don't know what it is yet, but I can get you there."

Jack came rushing out of his office, his jacket flipping over his head as he shoved his other arm into its spot. "Ianto, stay with Tosh. Gwen, Owen, with me. Let's move!"

They ran to the car, Jack jumping into the driver's seat, ready to follow each and every one of Tosh's instructions. Owen took the passenger's seat and Gwen climbed in behind him, aware of the smell of Owen's cologne dangerously close to her nostrils. She checked to make sure her gun was loaded and the safety turned off.

"Left on third," Tosh's voice sounded throughout the car.

Jack swerved the car left, driving at a dangerously fast pace for streets within the city center.

"Right two hundred meters."

"Do you know what it is, Tosh?" asked Owen, his voice excited at the prospect of finding something new.

"Not yet, Owen. Take the next left!"

Jack missed the left but recovered by turning the car three hundred and sixty degrees at the next light. This didn't amuse the drivers of other cars who were also trying to cross the intersection at the same time. Jack received several reproachful honks, but didn't cause an accident.

"There's a lot of energy coming from this thing, guys. Be ready for something big."

"What d'you think it is?" whispered Gwen.

"Dunno," replied Owen. "But it's about time we had something happen. It's been boring for way too long. Though I did find a good way to spend my time, if you know what I mean." Gwen could hear the amusement in his voice and flushed a deep crimson.

"I don't know what you mean. I haven't had any fun at all."

"No, no, you're right. You are no fun at all," deadpanned Owen. "I'd rather be fucking a dead woman."

"Will you two get a grip?" cried Jack. "Ianto, open up all CCTV in the surrounding area and see if you can find what we're up against. It's not necessarily something bad," said Jack, speeding up now that they had reached the freeway.

"You're about twelve kilometers out, Jack," said Tosh. The communications went silent for a moment.

"I think you're going to need more than a gun," said Ianto finally.

"What?" asked Gwen. "What is it?"

"Well I can't confirm anything without a bio-scan," said Tosh, "but from what we can see it very much looks like a member of the tyrannosauridae family from the late Cretaceous."

"Oh good. A carnivorous dinosaur," said Jack.

"Nothing surprises you anymore, does it?" asked Gwen.

"Not when you've lived as long as I have." Jack drove silently for a minute. "What's the plan of attack, Tosh?"

"I'd recommend getting to it before it gets to the cottages just to its west."

"Funny," smiled Jack.

"No, really. It's headed in their direction and all of them are habited. It'll kill all the residents the moment it smells them, Jack."

Jack pushed down the acceleration pedal until it was almost touching the floor. "How far?"

"A kilometer," said Tosh.

"What are its weak spots, Ianto?" asked Jack.

"It's got very short arms. So I would hazard a guess that it's not terribly good at basketball."

Owen and Gwen groaned.

"Not the time for jokes, guys," said Jack. "This is a real threat to the people of Wales and we have got to take care of it before it takes care of them."

They heard Tosh moan over their communications.

"Tosh?" hazarded Jack.

"The police have gotten involved. They're trying to seal off the area and evacuate all the homes, but they're just going to make it angry. The more people are moving about, the more the dinosaur can smell its food and the more people are going to get eaten."

Gwen looked out the window. "Jack?"

"Huh?"

"Jack, I think you should stop driving."

"What?"

"I can see it."

Jack slammed on the breaks and craned his neck to look out the rear passenger window.

"She's right, Jack," said Tosh. "It's about five hundred meters from your current position."

"Yeah, I know."

Three car doors slammed spontaneously as Jack, Gwen, and Owen got out of the black SUV. Owen grabbed his medical kit and loaded a second gun with tranquilizer darts.

"Somehow I just don't think that's going to cut it, Owen," said Jack, reaching into the trunk of the car and pulling out something that looked suspiciously like a grenade launcher.

"You need to move!" shouted Tosh. "It's got someone in its mouth."

"Oh shit," cried Gwen, grabbing a second grenade launched that Jack shoved into her hands. They were close enough to hear the screams of the terrified villagers and the gunfire of the policeman that were trying to control the dinosaur.

"What do they think they're doing?" mumbled Jack. "Always coming in at the wrong moment to make a mess out of everything." He threw a string of grenades over his shoulder. "Alright, let's move!"

The three ran towards the dinosaur. Jack and Gwen stopped a hundred meters away to set up their guns, but Owen continued to run into the village, seeking out people who had been hurt, trying to find signs of life in those people who were no longer moving. "Fire all your tranquilizers," said Jack over the com system. "We don't want him trampling the whole town when we fire at him."

Owen stopped where he was standing and looked at the gigantic dinosaur that was standing merely ten meters away from him. It had its back to him, but that didn't stop Owen from recognizing the mass of the dinosaur and admiring the huge muscles that were bulging from the animal's legs.

"Owen, fire!" shouted Jack.

Owen raised his gun, firing six times in succession straight into the back of the dinosaur.

The tyrannosaurus dropped the policeman that it had picked up and turned to face Owen. "Get it! Shoot!" cried Owen, pulling out his handgun but knowing that it would do no damage against the great, scaly monster in front of him. He heard the two distinct thunks of grenades leaving their tubes and barely had time to hit the ground before the air above him exploded and shards of dinosaur armor went flying.

The dinosaur roared, stomping it's feet madly.

There were two more thunks as Jack and Gwen fired again. This time, one of them got lucky and hit the dinosaur square between the eyes. The dinosaur swayed for a minute, actually dead on its feet, before falling to the ground with the force of a small earthquake.

Owen wasted no time in picking himself up off the ground and running towards the policeman whom he'd seen fall out of the air only moments before. Jack and Gwen came running up behind him. "We're going to need a serious clean-up crew," said Gwen, looking at the massive dinosaur on the ground before her.

More policemen were beginning to arrive on the scene, with ambulances in tow. Jack helped the paramedics carry villagers into the ambulances, handing a small pill to each of the paramedics with instructions to give it to the patients as soon as they were stable.

Owen was busy trying to breathe life into the fallen policeman. His guilty partner stood behind Owen, wringing his hands and repeating "I told him to take the day off today."

Gwen approached him calmly. "Hi, I'm Gwen." She put an arm around the distraught policeman. "Your friend's going to be just fine. Owen's the best doctor I know. Why don't you come with me over here?" She guided him to an empty ambulance and instructed him to sit on the bumper. "I think he's in shock," she told the paramedic.

She walked over to where Jack was busy talking to someone who looked to be the head of police. "We're Torchwood," he was explaining. "We'll take care of this mess; just take care of your people." The policeman seemed to be protesting. "No, it won't be on the news. I can personally guarantee it."

Gwen chuckled to herself. She raised her hand to her earpiece. "Tosh? Ianto? Any idea how we're going to clean this thing up?"

"Oh it's going to be my job, isn't it?" Ianto asked, mournfully. "It's always my job."

"Somehow I don't think you can do this one on your own," said Gwen.

"Yeah," chimed in Owen over the com, "it might be too big for you, Ianto." They could all hear him laughing at his own joke.

"Grow up, Owen," said Ianto.

"I think we're going to have to burn it," said Tosh, always paying attention. "It's too big for us to do much else with."

"Got it," said Gwen. She approached Jack and the chief of police. "We're going to need this area quarantined off for the next forty-eight hours," she said.

Jack raised an eyebrow at Gwen's taking charge.

The policeman nodded. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Burn it," said Gwen.

After ensuring that everyone involved in the day's events had received an amnesia pill and setting the body of the dinosaur on fire, Jack, Owen, and Gwen hopped in the car to head back to Torchwood. Tosh and Ianto were waiting, Ianto with a freshly made pot of coffee. Owen and Gwen denied his offer.

"I'll need you to go over there tomorrow and do something with those ashes," Jack told Ianto.

Ianto nodded. "Of course. I'll—"

"See you all tomorrow," interrupted Gwen, exiting the building with Owen following close behind. He smacked her butt on the way out.

Tosh huffed. "Very rude, to do that in the workplace," she said to herself. She had been pretending to pay extra close attention to her monitor, but of course she couldn't keep her eyes off Gwen and Owen. "Vulgar," she murmured. In her mind she could just hear Owen's reaction to her reaction—'panties in a knot, Tosh?' She wanted to kick herself for even wishing that he might start thinking with a body part that didn't lie below his waist. Jack and Ianto had retired to Jack's office, shades drawn, and, as usual, Tosh remained on her own. She wasn't looking forward to going back to her flat, but she didn't relish the idea of staying at Torchwood all night listening to Jack and Ianto talk about who came up with better positions either.

Sighing, she picked up her keys and initiated shut down procedures on her computer.

With the stroke of a key, she paused the shut down, mid-step. It couldn't be.

She marched upstairs and barged into Jack's office, trying very hard to ignore the two naked men who were stretched out on the floor in front of her.

"Tosh!" exclaimed Jack.

Ianto scuffled for a pillow to hold over his body.

"Jack, the rift's gone mad. It's got more energy than I've ever seen before."

Ignoring the fact that he was lying on the floor in the nude was very difficult. Jack stood up and reached for his overcoat.

Tosh blushed.

"Is anything coming out of the rift?" he asked.

"Nothing yet, but I swear Jack, the rift has never been this excited before." She couldn't help herself and glanced at Jack's crotch. She blushed even deeper.

"Excited, huh? Good choice of word there, Tosh."

Tosh slowly backed out of the room. "Just wanted you to know so that you could monitor it tonight. I'm off to bed. I mean, home. To sleep."

Jack laughed and shut the door behind her. He looked at Ianto. "Now where were we?" But before they could resume exactly where they had paused, Jack made sure to turn on the screen showing the readings that were coming off of the rift.


	2. Coming Through

Coming Through

* * *

Three phones received a text message simultaneously.

Tosh, alone in her apartment, was up out of bed within thirty seconds of hearing her phone buzz and was dressed and out the door before five minutes had passed.

Gwen and Owen were moving much more slowly. Upon hearing their phones, Gwen groaned and rolled over, out of her comfy spot in Owen's arms, to reach her phone where it was sitting on a bedside table.

"Always in the bloody middle of the bloody night," swore Owen, reading the message on his phone at the same moment that Gwen flipped hers open: RIFT ACTIVITY. COME TO HUB. STAT.

"You've got a dirty mouth in the middle of the night," said Gwen, flopping out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans.

"I was hoping you'd have one in the morning," Owen winked.

"Hey, now!" Gwen strode through the flat to the door. "Time to move."

Owen grabbed his gun and followed her out the door.

* * *

The hub was bustling with its usual activity. Tosh was monitoring the rift while Jack and Ianto prepared various weapons. "Took you long enough," shouted Jack when Gwen and Owen rushed in. "Grab your kits, meet us at the car. Ianto, cover for Tosh. Tosh, with me." Jack grabbed a kit and an extra gun and made for the car, Tosh following close behind, reading updates on the state of the rift to Jack. Gwen grabbed a second gun, Owen his medical kit, and the pair hustled behind them.

"What's going on, Jack?" Gwen asked as she climbed into the backseat of the car and slammed the door behind her.

"We've got something big coming through," said Jack vaguely, stepping on the accelerator.

"Big, like size? Like yesterday?" asked Gwen.

"No," interrupted Tosh. "I've never seen anything like it. It's like the rift is splitting apart. There's something coming through, or about to come through, that is taking up all of the energy of the rift and some extra."

Jack pressed on his communicator. "You hear us, Ianto?"

"I'm here, Jack. Nothing's come through yet-I'm punching information forward to Tosh as it's coming through."

"Anything new?"

"Nothing more out of the ordinary then what you've already seen. I'll keep you posted on any changes."

"Thanks, Ianto." Jack drove on in silence, heading for a part of the rift that cut through fields beyond central Cardiff.

"Jack?"

"Ianto."

"There's definitely something coming through. I don't think it'll be anything spectacular size-wise, but it's gathering more and more energy as it approaches. You don't think the stability of the entire rift is at stake?"

"I sure as hell hope not," said Jack, gripping the steering wheel even tighter.

"What would theoretically happen?" asked Ianto.

"Well, to use a phrase that I am not normally partial to, we would be completely screwed," said Tosh, not looking up from her hand-held monitor.

Owen snorted. "That's not the half of it."

"What would happen?" Gwen questioned worriedly.

No one answered.

"Jack? Tosh?" She looked around the car in alarm. "What would happen? Owen?"

"Millions of lives would be at risk," said Jack finally.

"What? Like that's not different from any other day at work," replied Gwen.

"No. You don't understand. There is a reason why the number one rule of Torchwood is 'don't mess with the rift.' If the rift were to be opened, not only would millions of aliens be able to crossover to our world seemingly at random, but millions of humans would be at risk for the same thing. As it is now, with the rift contained as much as possible, we only receive the odd alien and only every once and a while do people go missing. The whole world, not just Cardiff, would be at risk if the rift opened. And there are millions of nasty aliens out there that could come in. You don't know the half of it," said Jack.

Tosh was staring at him sadly. "You don't have to keep everything to yourself, Jack. We know that you've been to other worlds and other times. You can tell us about it."

"No."

"Jack? Sorry to interrupt, but something really odd is happening," said Ianto over the com.

"Send it through to Tosh. What are the readings?"

"I've never seen anything like it. It seems like the rift is simultaneously trying to explode and implode," said Ianto.

"What?" asked Gwen.

"Picture it as someone who has the need to vomit but is trying to contain themself," whispered Owen.

"Yuck," whispered Gwen.

"It's going to let something through, Jack. Any second now." Tosh was staring at her hand-held device. "Were out nine hundred meters and counting."

Jack drove the car for five hundred more meters before slowing down and bringing the car to a stop. "I don't want to get any closer until it comes through," he said. "We don't know what it is, we don't know where it's from, and we don't know if it's dangerous."

"If it's causing the rift this much trouble, I think we can safely assume that it's dangerous," said Owen.

"Guns at the ready!"

Four bullets clicked into place.

"It's coming…NOW," cried Ianto.

The group shielded their eyes as a bright green light was emitted from the air in front of them. Something long and slender hovered three meters above the ground for the duration of ten seconds, still shining bright green, before falling to the ground. The air in front of them seemed to be splintering. The green light shot off in every different direction, vanishing into the night. The sky above the field turned black again.

"Everyone okay?" asked Ianto.

There was a chorus of yes's.

"It's stopped emitting any kind of signal," said Ianto. "I'm forwarding the latest to you, Tosh."

The team was slowly inching forward, torches and guns out, searching for the item that fell from the sky.

"This is weird. It's not registering on any frequency," said Tosh, holding neither torch nor gun, but busy clicking away on her hand-held computer. "By any law of physics, this item does not exist."

"Your laws of physics are wrong, Tosh," said Owen, shining his torch at an item that was lying apparently harmless on the ground a meter away.

"No. I am telling you. This item doesn't exist." She held up the screen to Owen. "There's no signal. It's not even as registering as having any weight."

Jack lowered his gun and breached the remaining land between the group and the fallen item. They all crowded around, staring down at the long, slender item in front of them.

"It looks like a walking stick," said Gwen, reaching to pick it up.

Jack threw out his arm. "Don't touch it!" he hissed. "We still don't know anything about it." He raised his hand to his earpiece as Gwen straightened. "Any news, Ianto?"

"It's weird, Jack. It's really weird. Tosh is right; it's not registering on any frequency and doesn't seem to have any mass. By all our laws it shouldn't exist. But that's not even the really weird part. There seems to be some sort of dead zone radiating out of the item. It's like a miniature rift in time. Nothing compared to our rift, of course, and this one barely gives off any signal at all, but something's not right with time."

"Thanks, Ianto."

"What time is it, anyways?" asked Gwen. "I'm knackered."

"Didn't get much sleep tonight, did we Gwen?" Owen elbowed her playfully in the side.

Tosh looked at her watch. "Funny. My battery seems to have died."

Gwen and Owen looked to theirs. "Ours too."

Owen pulled out a mobile phone. "It's on but it's not displaying the time," he remarked. "Stupid electronics."

"No," mumbled Jack. "No, no, no." He bent down to look at the item closer. "Why didn't I notice this before?"

"What is it, Jack?" Gwen squatted next to him.

"It's from Gallifrey."

"It's what?" asked Owen, peering over Jack's shoulder.

Jack reached out and grabbed the item. "We've got to get this back to Torchwood. Move!"

The team had learned not to ask questions when Jack bossed them around with a somewhat frightened tone. They obligingly ran back to the car and sat silently as Jack drove them back to the hub. "We're on our way back," were the only words that Jack spoke for the duration of the ride, and they were to Ianto.

They reached headquarters in record time. Jack flew out of the car and dropped the item on a table as soon as he could, as if he didn't want to touch it for long periods of time.

"What is it, Jack? What's Gallifrey?" Gwen was the first to break the silence.

"Tosh, Ianto, you said it's not registering on any frequencies, but you were only checking frequencies that move forward in time. Rerun all of your tests, this time with the frequencies in reverse."

"In reverse?" asked Ianto, moving with Tosh to her computer station, watching her press buttons that would reverse all known frequencies. "You think that it's sending a signal backward in time?"

"But who would do that?" asked Gwen.

"Aliens. We don't know how they think," muttered Owen.

"You're right, Jack!" cried Tosh. "There's a very strong signal being projected into the past."

Jack didn't look surprised.

"But of course," said Tosh, clapping her hands together once, "that's why there's a small rift forming around the item. It's got to project things through time. And for anything to go backwards there needs to be a rift."

"Follow me," said Jack. They all migrated to the conference room, Jack holding the item as far away from his body as he could, as if he could get infected if it touched more than his hand. Once they had all sat and were looking at him expectantly, Jack began. "This item is from Gallifrey."

"I've never heard of it," said Owen.

"That's because it doesn't exist. At least, not anymore. It was destroyed in the Time War."

"What's a time war?" asked Gwen.

"It was a war between the Dalaks and the Time Lords."

"Time lords?" asked Gwen.

"Are you going to interrupt me every time?" Jack asked angrily.

Gwen shook her head. Owen sniggered.

"Good. The Time Lords come from the planet Gallifrey. It was destroyed in the war, as were both the Dalaks and the Time Lords. This item, if I am not mistaken, and I seldom am, is a staff of one of the Gallifreyan high council. It was probably sent back in time with the intention of another Time Lord finding it and using it to revive the planet. At this point I'm sure that the planet knew that it was dying. There was nothing left for them to do."

"What can this staff do, Jack?" asked Tosh.

"Simply its presence here is affecting the rift. You've seen how it's behaving. The rift is splintering because there is an item here that is really out of sync with time."

"Jack, aren't you an item that's out of sync with time?"

"I'm naturally occurring," said Jack stiffly. "This staff was sent here from the future and is sending a signal back through time. Like you found, it shouldn't exist. It doesn't register as having mass. This item is wrong."

"And you're right?" asked Gwen.

"I've got mass!"

"And so many people could vouch for that," said Owen, sarcastically wistful.

"What else can it do?" asked Tosh, ignoring Gwen and Owen.

"If I'm right, it could bring back the planet of Gallifrey. Bring back all the dead and all of the lost."

"Don't we want to save those people?" asked Ianto.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because they would be a planet born fresh from a war and hungering for more. Most of the Time Lords are not nice people."

"How do you know?" questioned Tosh.

"I've met them."

"So what do we do now?" asked Gwen.

"Now we find ourselves a Doctor."

* * *

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	3. The Doctor Arrives

The Doctor Arrives

* * *

"We're finally going to get a chance to meet this mysterious doctor of yours?" asked Tosh, staring at the staff on the table in front of her.

"He's the only Gallifreyan who'd be willing to help us out," said Jack. "We need to find him."

"Is that hard? Can't we just search the online records and CCTV for any man calling himself a doctor who matches his description?" asked Gwen, propping her feet up on the table.

Jack frowned at her shoes. "Yes, it is hard to find him," he said. "He travels not only through space but also through time. Meaning that we could think that we were at precisely the right spot, but we could be thousands of years off. And he doesn't call himself a doctor, he _is_ The Doctor. That's his name."

Gwen stared at him.

"What kind of name is that?" asked Owen, clearly voicing Gwen's thoughts.

"Does it matter?" asked Jack. "Luckily, I know of someone who can help us!" He stood up. "Everyone to your stations. Alright, Tosh, you need to hack into the cell phone directory of one Mickey Smith. British citizen. You're looking for the number of a Rose Tyler. If everything is still how I think it is, Rose will be with the Doctor. Tell them to come to Cardiff, present day, we need them."

"I'm on it," called Tosh, her fingers already clicking away at the keyboard.

"Owen?" Jack paused and thought for a moment. "I don't have anything for you to do."

"Right, thanks," Owen replied. "I'll go check on our darling Janet."

"Good," said Jack. "She probably needs to be fed anyways. Ianto?"

Ianto looked up. "Don't say—"

"Coffee," finished Jack.

Ianto frowned and wandered away to prepare his semi-famous gourmet coffee.

"Gwen, follow me. We'll be the greeting party."

"Does it need to be so formal?" asked Gwen, following Jack out of Torchwood.

"No, but the Doctor inherently distrusts Torchwood. So we're going to be nice and polite, and you are not going to ask any questions."

"But-"

"No questions," said Jack.

"Fine," said Gwen, crossing her arms and sitting on the steps in front of the fountain.

Moments passed in silence. Gwen was angry at Jack for thinking that she would make the Doctor think poorly of them. It was her job to ask questions, to learn answers. She didn't want to give that up just because some random specialist who the team heard mysterious references to was going to come to the rescue with his lady-friend. It was absurd. As a member of the team, she had every right to know about the people who they were bringing in to the Hub.

"Jack?" started Gwen.

He held up a finger. "Shhh!"

Suddenly Gwen heard it too. A noise, very distinct, but like nothing that she had ever heard before. It was almost like a whirring, or a twirling noise.

"Ha!" Jack was smiling and jumped to his feet. "Tosh did it! She found him!"

The noise stopped and about five hundred meters from where Gwen was sitting, a bright blue police box appeared. Before she could stand up and take a closer look, she noticed that Jack was already on his feet, running towards the funny box. Unsure of what exactly to do, she stood up and made to follow Jack.

Gwen watched as a pretty blonde girl stepped out of the box and leapt into Jack's arms. She was smiling and laughing. Jack greeted her with a somewhat intimate kiss on the lips. Gwen suspected that this was Rose. After Jack let Rose out of his arms, he held them open even wider from the man who was now walking out of the police box. He was a handsome man, wearing a long brown overcoat and a pair of Converse sneakers. He walked very confidently into Jack's arms. He didn't seem quite as excited about the kiss on the lips that he received, but took it in stride. Gwen had never seen Jack so happy.

The three linked arms and walked back to where Gwen was standing, having stopped walking towards the box when she'd seen people get out of it. It wasn't quite what she had been expecting.

"It's about time for a refuelling," the Doctor was saying enthusiastically.

"So you got our call just in the nick of time!"

"Call?" said Rose.

"You mean you didn't get our call? Tosh was supposed to call you."

"Nope!" said the Doctor, still smiling. "No call. Just thought it felt right to come back to good ol' Cardiff. Or, I should say, I dread to be back but we need fuel for the rest of our travels."

"I think you missed me," stated Jack.

"Missed you? We're not here to visit you. We're following a very high tech tri-fold ray sent to Earth from Ogros!" exclaimed the Doctor. "And we need fuel!"

"Nah," said Rose, gently elbowing the Doctor, "he's lying. Of course we missed you!"

She leaned in closer to Jack. "And there is no ray from Ogros," she whispered.

Jack grinned and led them through the visitor's entrance to the Hub, completely ignoring Gwen, who seemed very stunned by the friendship shared between her boss and the newcomers. She'd seen Jack get along with people, she knew that he and Ianto had some sort of thing going on, but she had never seen Jack behave like this. Before they arrived he was so serious, intense, and moody, but now he was like a new man. It was like she had never seen him truly happy before.

She followed them down after the visitor's block had returned to its place along the other stones. Owen and Tosh were talking animatedly to the guests. Tosh was babbling away about cathode ray tubes to the Doctor and Owen and Jack were making Rose laugh. Ianto had served coffee, received great compliments, and was listening in on the conversation between Tosh and the Doctor. Gwen felt extremely left out.

She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Jack? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Something wrong?" Jack asked, turning from the conversation to look at Gwen. All other conversations fell silent and Gwen could feel six pairs of eyes boring into her forehead.

"No, no. I just haven't been introduced," said Gwen, realizing that if she went off on Jack it would make the whole ordeal incredibly awkward.

Jack bowed towards Rose, holding his hand out to her. "This is Rose." He turned and bowed in the direction of the Doctor. "And this is the Doctor." He straightened. "Doctor, Rose, this is Gwen. She's the most recent addition to Torchwood."

"Pleasure," said Rose, turning back to Jack and Owen, who were now attempting to act out a recent encounter they had had with a sex-loving alien.

"Nice to meet you," said the Doctor. He scooted over closer to Tosh to make room for Gwen in the conversation.

The Doctor, Tosh, Ianto and Gwen chatted for several minutes, but kept getting interrupted by the bursts of laughter, both male and female, coming from the other conversation. Whatever was so funny had Rose doubled up in laughter, gripping Jack's arms to keep from falling over. Her head was against his chest. Jack's face looked like it was about to split apart, tears of laughter were rolling down his cheeks. With arms crossed and his upper body leaning up against the nearest wall, Owen merely looked amused.

"What's got you guys tied up in knots?" asked the Doctor, leaving Tosh, Ianto and Gwen.

"We were just reminiscing about the day we met," gasped Rose.

"It was funny?"

"It was the day you tried to dance," said Jack.

The Doctor huffed. "I am a very good dancer."

Rose snorted. Jack started laughing all over again.

The rest of the Torchwood employees watched this interaction with amusement. None of them mentioned the dangerous staff that was waiting for the Doctor's examination or the fact that the rift was at a warning stage and something could slip through at any minute. They all stood back and watched Jack enjoying being reunited with his friends.

Gwen couldn't help but feel a little bit hurt and a little jealous. She didn't have any claim on anyone at Torchwood. She knew that she and Owen were only temporary. But for whatever reason, seeing Jack happy with people that she'd never met sent a little pang down to her stomach. She wanted Torchwood to be hers, and hers alone. The others didn't really have any friends, so why did Jack get to have them? She scowled. "Shouldn't we show him the artefact?" she called, interrupting the fun.

Jack wiped some tears off his face. "Not now, Gwen."

"I don't see why not," she said.

"Gwen, go home," said Jack.

She could tell that she was making him angry. "I really think-"

"Go." Jack watched as Gwen left the Hub. He turned back to Rose and the Doctor, frown instantly gone. "Now, where were we?"

"I believe you had just promised to teach the Doctor how to dance," giggled Rose.

"Right!" said Jack. He engulfed the Doctor in his arms. "Now you've got to hold them close," he said, pulling the Doctor into him so that their chests were pressed together. "And one arm on their back," his hand slipped down. "Most of them won't mind if your hand strays a bit." His hand grabbed the Doctor's butt.

Ianto's eyes flashed angrily.

The Doctor leapt a meter in the air. "Practice on Rose!" he shrieked. "You're not going to get anywhere with me or my butt!"

Rose giggled, watching the Doctor massage his behind. "Then who's going to teach you how to dance?" she asked. "All the ladies in your life are going to be so disappointed."

"The TARDIS and I dance very well together," said the Doctor, moving to stand by Tosh. "She leads, I follow."

"There are lots of things a TARDIS can't do, Doctor!" called Jack, trying, and succeeding, to do the jitterbug with Rose.

The Doctor muttered something under his breath. He leaned in towards Tosh. "So what's this about an artefact?"

"It's just something that came through the rift, sir," said Tosh.

"Oh no! Don't you sir me. I am the Doctor. Not a sir."

Tosh smiled. "Sorry."

"So what fell through this time?"

"Jack thinks it's a Gallifreyan staff, but he wanted your trained eye to look at it before he made any definitive decision."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "You say Gallifreyan?"

"Yes," said Tosh, punching a few keys on her computer and bringing up a digital image of the staff. "It's sending a signal backwards in time, and in doing so, it's tearing itself a new rift. It caused all of our equipment to go wild when it came through in the first place. We didn't know what to expect."

The Doctor stared at the rotating image on the screen. He couldn't hear anything, not Tosh's explanation, not Rose's laughter in the background, not Jack's voice. He could only focus on the staff in front of him. It was truly a staff of the Gallifreyan High Council. This staff could bring him his life back. It could undo all his mistakes. It could be the rise of the Time Lords again. "Fantastic!" he whispered, not taking his eyes off screen.

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	4. Parting of the Ways

Parting of the Ways

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"But this is so exciting!" The Doctor was talking animatedly to Tosh. He kept glancing back at the rotating image of the staff on the screen. "Can I see it?"

"Yes, of course," said Tosh, putting down her handheld computer and ushering the Doctor away from the lab and up the stairs to the conference room. "I'm showing the Doctor upstairs," she called, interrupting the lively conversation between Jack, Rose, and Owen.

The three followed Tosh and the Doctor into the conference room where Ianto was already serving more coffee.

"I can't believe this came through the rift!" exclaimed the Doctor excitedly.

"What is it?" asked Rose, leaning over the table to get a better look at the staff.

"It's a staff of the Gallifreyan high council," said Jack.

"But that would mean—"

"Yes!" said the Doctor. "It's an artefact from home!"

"But Doctor," said Rose, "your home was destroyed. In the time war. Remember?"

"Oh yes!" he replied, smiling and rubbing his hands together.

"I don't understand why you're so happy, Doctor." She put a hand consolingly on his back. "You can't bring them back."

"No," said Jack meaningfully, "he can't."

"Of course I can!" said the Doctor.

"No. You'd have to cross your own timeline, that's what you said. You can't change the past because you can't interfere with your own timeline and in order to bring back Gallifrey, you'd have to interfere with your own past, because you are the one who ended the war."

Tosh and Owen listened to the conversation uninterestedly. When he saw the first break in the conversation, Owen interrupted the conversation. "Hey Jack, you don't need me here. Don't see much need for a doctor since you've already got one." He laughed at his own joke. "Anyways, I'm going to go check up on Gwen. Think she's having a bummer of a day."

Jack waved him off without argument. "Tosh, you're welcome to go too, and you, Ianto."

"I'd much rather stay here. There's a lot for me to learn," said Tosh.

"Great. Ianto, you in or you out?"

Ianto frowned at how close Jack's hand was to Rose's, and how close his leg was to the Doctor's. "I think I'll leave." He slammed the tray down on the table.

Rose reeled backwards to avoid the splash of hot coffee. "Nice to meet you, Ianto," she said cautiously as Ianto walked out of the room.

"He gets a little moody," said Jack. "Don't mind him."

"So this is your Torchwood," said the Doctor, "a small crew of people who don't get along and who develop alien weaponry."

"That is not what we do anymore, Doctor," said Jack harshly. "This is not Torchwood One."

"I haven't seen any weapons, Doctor," said Rose.

"We don't specialize in weapons," said Tosh. "We focus on the containment of dangerous aliens and artefacts that fall through the rift. We study what falls through and do our best to return things to where they came from. Some artefacts we do keep to use and study further, but we are not attempting to create any weapons or use alien technology to keep weapons. We protect the world from the alien threat and learn what we can in the meantime."

"Well, if that's truly the case," began the Doctor, "then I can accept what you're doing down here."

"We can't all travel the stars with you, Doctor," said Jack. "Someone's got to be on call for the Earth."

"I've saved the world hundreds of times," said the Doctor defensively.

"We save the world _every day_."

"Alright boys! Enough with the testosterone! You both save the world and I love both of you for it," said Rose, smiling and grabbing each of their hands.

"Is this where you go when you leave us, Jack?" asked Tosh.

Jack grinned. "It's a whole other universe out there."

"Then why do you come back?"

Jack leaned across the table and said in a stage whisper, "It's the Doctor. I think he gets jealous of me. He wants to keep Rose all for himself." He winked at Rose.

Tosh smiled. "So what can this staff do?" she asked the Doctor.

"It's a staff of the high council. It can do anything that I want it to do. It's got all of the power of the council contained within. Before the time war, we were a great race. We lived happily on Gallifrey, and it was so beautiful. I wish you could have seen it as I did, when I was a child. And you can! You can see Gallifrey in all its glory. Because that, my dear Tosh, that is what this staff can do." The Doctor paused, reminiscing about his past and the beauty of his home planet. "And that is what it will do. It can bring the Time Lords back to power. We will be a great race again, and I won't be the only one. I, the Doctor, will no longer be the last of the Time Lords. I will be the hero of the Time Lords, for I received their message and I am going to answer. I am going to bring them back!"

Tosh looked awed. "How can you bring back your planet if it was destroyed in the war?"

"I am a Time Lord! I can see all of time and all of the paths that time could have taken and should have taken, and all the paths that it has taken. I can change the path of Gallifrey so that it misses the time war."

"But the Dalaks-" interrupted Rose.

"The Dalaks won't be a problem," said the Doctor. "I am more than a Time Lord with this staff. I am a Time Master. I can divert the timelines. I can make Gallifrey survive and skip the entirety of the war, while the Dalaks will still have to fight, still have to face me, and they will be unsuccessful."

"No!" said Jack. "Doctor, you can't interfere with time like that."

"I can do whatever I desire," said the Doctor. He changed tones. "If it was your race Jack, you would want them back. You wouldn't have to be like me, ending up travelling alone until eternity."

"I am just like you, Doctor. I will always end up alone."

Rose grabbed his hand. "You'll always have someone, Jack. And so will you, Doctor."

"Why will you end up alone, Doctor?" asked Tosh, concerned.

"I'm a Time Lord," explained the Doctor. "I'm not human and therefore I won't die like a human will. When my body senses that it is dying, it will regenerate. It's something that I can do twelve times, and it's possible to do more." He looked sadly at Tosh. "After the Time War, I never thought I'd want to regenerate again."

"But then he found me! And he regenerated to save me," said Rose. "Though I'm still fuzzy on those details," she added.

"You're very noble," said Tosh.

The Doctor ignored both of them. "With a new Gallifrey, I won't have to worry about being alone. My planet will be back, and my people." He began daydreaming of a possible future.

Jack's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "You cannot bring them back, Doctor."

"I have to bring them back," said the Doctor. He picked up the staff and shook it in Jack's face. "This is a sign, a message from the past. It's calling out to the Time Lords of the past, begging to be used. They knew that the planet was doomed, and they've called for help. I have to help them."

"I won't allow it!" Jack banged his fist on the table. "You know how you were when you first regenerated after the Time War. Even though you'll circumvent the war when you bring your planet back, they will all be just like you. It will be a planet created out of war. A planet full of people who are just like you were: dark, moody, war-hungry, and with a serious attitude. That type of community will destroy the universe, whether or not there are Dalaks in it."

"My planet has no problems with the universe. We do not interfere with time as a rule."

"Then why are you going to interfere with time now? If your people took an oath of non-interference, then I will force you to keep your oath and not allow you to change the past."

"Jack, I don't see how bringing a race back from the dead will harm the universe," said Tosh.

"It will harm the universe when they all decide to forget their oaths and play the part that they started out playing, the manipulators of time."

"Too many people have died because the Time Lords stopped interfering," said the Doctor. "I won't have any more death if I can prevent it."

"You already do prevent it," said Rose. "You don't need more Time Lords to help you when you do such a fantastic job by yourself."

"The universe would be better off with more Time Lords," stated the Doctor.

"No," said Jack.

"Yes."

"I will not allow you."

"I have the staff. Thank you for your assistance, Jack." The Doctor stood up and offered his hand to Tosh. "Would you like to see the birth of a planet?"

"She gets asked to see a planet's birth and I'm only taken to see their deaths?" murmured Rose under her breath.

Tosh looked at Jack.

"I didn't ask Jack," said the Doctor. "I asked you."

"I…well, I would be honoured," said Tosh, placing her hand within the Doctor's.

"Tosh," warned Jack.

"There is no way that the birth of a planet will harm the universe. Life is good. Isn't that what Torchwood is all about? Learning about other races and saving lives wherever possible?"

Jack turned to the Doctor. "Doctor, please. Think about what you are doing."

"I am saving a civilization while ensuring that the universe stays safe from another. I am doing good. Rose?"

She shook her head. "I'm staying with Jack. I know what you were like right after the war, Doctor. The universe doesn't need millions of people like that, all blood-thirsty and angry."

Without saying a word, the Doctor escorted Tosh out of the room, holding the staff very carefully, as if not to harm the power contained within it. Silently, Rose and Jack watched them go.

Jack turned to Rose. "We have to stop them."

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	5. Losing the TARDIS

Losing the TARDIS

* * *

"Jack, what are we going to do? The moment the Doctor gets into the TARDIS, they're out of our reach!"

"Not quite," said Jack, running out of the conference room and taking a position behind Tosh's workstation. "All of my employees carry a Torchwood cell phone. We should be able to track her."

"Even if they leave the planet?" asked Rose dubiously.

Jack didn't answer.

"Jack?" asked Rose, crossing her arms. "I'm sure that Torchwood is pretty high-tech and all, but your Torchwood phones aren't going to be like mine. They're not Doctor made. If they leave the planet or go back in time, we're going to have absolutely no idea where they're going or how to stop them."

"We have to catch them while they're still on the planet." Jack hit the side of the computer. "C'mon, damn it! Triangulate!"

"You don't need to do that," said Rose, a smile playing on her lips.

"What?"

"You watched us park the TARDIS. Couldn't we just run up there and climb in with them?"

"Yes!" Jack grabbed Rose's head and plopped a kiss in the middle of her forehead. "Except, if we use a tritium-reactor grenade we can ground the TARDIS!" He ran back up the stairs into his office to grab the grenade from the safe.

"Jack!" Rose shouted. "You better not harm a single paint chip on that spaceship!"

He rushed back down the stairs and grabbed her hand, dragging her out the door. "I would never harm the TARDIS. She's a living being!"

Jack and Rose ran out of the Torchwood hub and crossed the plaza towards where the bright blue police box was sitting harmlessly, ignored by the many people walking or sitting on the plaza steps. Jack and Rose were attracting many more looks than the old fashioned box. Rose and Jack were running at a flat out sprint when the telltale noise that accompanies the TARDIS's coming and going began.

"We're not going to make it!" cried Rose. "Doctor, no!"

Jack stopped running and pulled the pin out of his tritium grenade. He arched his back and raised his arm as if he were a baseball pitcher performing his windup. Rose watched as Jack released the grenade. As if everything was in slow motion, the grenade arched towards the TARDIS, which was beginning to flicker in and out of existence, very clearly about to materialize in another part of the universe. Jack grabbed Rose's hand once more and they continued running towards the TARDIS, following the path of the grenade. It fell to the ground centimetres away from the base of the TARDIS, but right as it detonated, the TARDIS snapped out of existence, materializing light-years away, unscathed.

As the TARDIS disappeared, Jack, Rose, and several innocent bystanders who happened to be within the blast radius found their feet unable to move. "Shit!" shouted Jack. "We lost 'em."

"We've also lost the ability to move," said Rose, panting.

"Oh my god!" cried one of the bystanders. "Someone call the police! I'm stuck. I can't move!"

"It's the grenade," said Jack, running his fingers through his hair. "Hey lady!" he called to the panicking bystander. "We don't need the police. I've got my people working on it right now."

"Who the hell do you think you are, military man?" shouted the woman.

"He works for Torchwood," shouted Rose.

"Oy!" said Jack. "Now I'm going to have to erase her memory."

"What?"

"People don't know about Torchwood. Can you imagine their reaction?"

"I get your point. But you just lied to her. You don't have any people working on it. We're the only ones at Torchwood right now," hissed Rose.

Jack pressed a button on his earpiece. "Ianto? Come in, Ianto." He frowned. "I know you're there, Ianto." He shook his head. "Gwen? Gwen and Owen, I need you to report to the hub immediately." He tapped the earpiece.

"Is it on?" asked Rose.

Jack gave her a look. He pressed the button again. "Attention all Torchwood employees. We have a Class A alien loose in the plaza. All employees report to this location immediately."

Rose snorted.

"Hey, if it'll get them to show up and get us out of this mess, then it's just a little white lie."

Rose reached out and grabbed Jack's hand. "Oh Jack. I've missed you. It's been far too long since I last saw you."

Jack linked his fingers between Rose's. "I've got a job to do here. I can't be out there with you and the Doctor all the time."

"I don't have to—" Rose started.

She was interrupted by the sound of sirens approaching the plaza. Gwen and Owen jumped out of a Suburban, guns cocked and loaded. Rose watched as Gwen pressed a button on her earpiece. "We're here, Jack. There isn't much panic. Where is your location?"

Jack dropped Rose's hand and raised his fingers to his mouth. The loud whistle grabbed both Gwen's and Owen's attention. Owen frowned and sheathed his gun. Gwen stalked angrily over to where Jack and Rose were stuck.

"Why the bloody hell did you lie to us, Jack?" she asked, waving her gun in Jack's face.

"I expect my employees to do what I ask of them. If they cannot perform that one simple task, then it is up to me to manipulate them into performing that task anyway. This would have been much easier if you behaved as you should have in the first place," said Jack angrily, pushing away Gwen's gun.

"You haven't been yourself since just before they arrived!" Gwen accused, pointing at Rose,

"Oy! Who d'you think you are?" asked Rose, frowning at Gwen.

"The Jack who I work for cares more about Torchwood than some harebrained Doctor and his mistress!"

Rose looked affronted. "I beg your pardon!"

Jack poked Gwen in the chest. "Watch it, Gwen. Or you may find yourself without a job in the near future."

"Why are we here, Jack?" asked Owen.

"We've all been caught by a tritium-reactor grenade. I need you to get the spray from the hub and douse the area so we can all move. And I need that woman," he pointed at the angry bystander who'd threatened to call the police, "to have her memory erased."

Owen nodded and used the visitor's entrance to gain quick access to the hub.

"I can't believe you, Jack," Gwen reprimanded. "You epitomize the boy who cried wolf."

"Gwen. You do not run Torchwood. You will never run Torchwood. I found you and gave you a job. I can just as easily make it all go away and you know that. I'd be careful about trying to take control, if I were you."

"You need me, Jack," said Gwen.

"I've got Rose."

Rose puffed out her chest in pride.

Gwen didn't seem to know what to say. Fortunately for her, Owen emerged from the visitor's entrance carrying something that looked like a can of spray paint, but also a bottle of water. He first offered the bottle of water to the woman who'd also been caught by the grenade. After he was satisfied with the amount of water she ingested, he bent down and sprayed the contents of the can around her feet. "Thank you for your patience, ma'am. I'll be sure to tell my men to put up 'Wet Concrete' signs next time we decide to redo the sidewalk." He then sprayed Rose's feet, and finally Jack's.

"Thanks, Owen," said Jack. "I appreciate your willingness to help." He frowned at Gwen.

Owen nodded. "Do we still have the rest of the day off?"

"You can have the rest of the day off on the condition that if I call either of you, you will respond to me the _first _time I call and come to the hub."

"What do you mean the first time?" asked Gwen.

"I mean, I don't want to have to call you twice before getting a response."

"You didn't call us twice, Jack," said Gwen.

Rose sniggered. "Told you so!"

"Ah. Well, keep up the good work," Jack replied lamely. Gwen and Owen stared at him.

Rose nudged Jack's side. "You probably owe her an apology," she whispered. "Be a gentleman."

"Ah, Gwen. If I may offer you an apology. I should not have gone off on you like I did. I was unaware that you didn't receive my first message requesting your presence and thought that you had been deliberately disobedient," said Jack.

"Apology accepted." Gwen pulled him close, whispering so that neither Owen nor Rose would hear what else she had to say. "You're still behaving really odd, though. Why are you so against this Doctor restoring a race? Are you just upset that he travels with a girl and not with you?"

Jack laughed and clapped Gwen on the back. "Oh Gwen, I know your observation skills are better than that!"

Gwen looked surprised by his reaction. She turned back to Owen. "Should we resume where we left off?"

Owen surreptitiously pinched her butt. "Call us if you need us, Jack! But give us at least an hour or two." He winked over his shoulder, ushering Gwen back to the Suburban.

Rose and Jack watched them drive away. "What are we going to do now, Jack? We've lost the TARDIS and have no way to trace the Doctor and Tosh. And they're about to bring millions of Time Lords back to life."

"Let's get back inside," said Jack, trying not to think about the havoc that a million war-mongering Time Lords could cause.

They walked slowly back into the Torchwood hub. It seemed empty without Owen, Gwen, Ianto, and Tosh bustling around, but sometimes, that was the way that Jack liked it. He enjoyed being with his friends/employees and he loved the thrill of the race, but sometimes he liked to enjoy the silence that abounded when they were away from the hub. He also wanted Rose all to himself. "I'm starving," said Jack suddenly. "How do you feel about pizza?"

"How do you feel about anchovies?" asked Rose.

"Terrible."

"Then I am feeling really good about pizza."

Jack laughed and pressed a button on his cell phone. "One large New York style pepperoni and black olive pizza, please. Usual location, cash."

"You've got the pizza place on speed dial?" Rose giggled. "Sometimes I really miss being home."

Jack plopped down on the couch in his office, pulling Rose down beside him. "You could always stay."

"Nah." She paused. "You know what it's like, Jack. Once you've seen something out there you never want to come back to present day Earth for long. There's so much to see out there, so many places to go and civilizations to save."

"Now it's our own that needs saving," said Jack, seriously.

"It's usually our own that needs saving," laughed Rose. "I just never thought that it would need saving from the Doctor. The one person, well sort of, who Earth can trust to always save the day is not going to come to the rescue this time."

"Maybe he'll come to his senses," sighed Jack.

"What do you think all the other Time Lords are going to do?"

"They're going to try to solve all the problems of the universe, just like the Doctor, but they're not going to be like he is now. They're going to try to fix everything and in the end they're just going to make it all worse. The Time Lords are a selfish race with more power than they know what to do with."

"So we can't do anything?"

"Not until they make the first move. The ball's in their court right now, and the Doctor holds all the power."

"What do we do until then?" asked Rose.

"We make the most of the time we have until the world ends."

"And how do we do that?" she asked slyly.

"We could end the way we began, dancing and champagne," offered Jack.

"I'd like nothing more."

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	6. It Begins

It Begins

* * *

Rose rested her head on Jack's shoulder. The pizza laid forgotten on the couch, kept company by an empty bottle of champagne and two half empty glasses. Neither Rose nor Jack was concentrating on anything other than the feeling of their hands in each others as they swayed slowly back and forth to the melodious voice of Harry Belafonte, singing of the sea and sun. Rose closed her eyes and let Jack lead her around the room. She didn't want to think about the fact that the Doctor was betraying both of them and didn't seem to see that this was a problem. She didn't want to think about how everything was changing and that she was beginning to second guess her decision to travel with the Doctor for the rest of her life. She didn't want to think about anything except the warmth of Jack's hand in hers, the comfort radiating out of the hand on her back, and the shoulder that she had nestled into.

The room turned around and around as Harry sang his heart out. Jack pulled Rose closer and their wide steps around the room shrank until they were just swaying back and forth. Rose moved her hand so that her fingers were threaded between Jack's and heaved a small sigh. "Jack?" she whispered, looking up at him.

"Mmm?"

"Do you really think that the Doctor is going to destroy the world?"

Jack let go of Rose's hand and stepped back. He ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know, Rose. I don't know what the Doctor's going to do now. I think there's some small part of him that realizes what he's doing is selfish and wrong, but I don't think he knows that part of him exists. He may not realize it until it's too late."

"I wish there was something we could do."

"We can clean up the messes as they come in," said Jack. "But until then…" He fiddled with the computer, gulped down the remainder of his champagne and watched Rose finish hers before offering his hand to her again.

"The time warp?" Rose laughed, grabbing Jack's hand. He danced her to the centre of the room.

"But of course! It seems fitting!" He twisted his knees towards each other put his hands on his hips.

"And it's the pelvis thru-ust that really drives you insannnnne!" sang Rose.

"I lied," said Jack, laughing. "Not appropriate at all for the end of the world."

"It's perfect!" said Rose, dancing around the room. She pranced towards the door and stopped short, face-to-face with Ianto.

"Jack!" called Ianto angrily.

Jack looked up from where he was swivelling his hips and quickly turned off the music. "What's going on, Ianto?"

"Do you not have any of the instruments turned on up here? I've been getting notifications for the past hour."

Jack was suddenly serious, any trace of the alcohol in his system immediately disappeared. He pressed some buttons and the computer screen showed the alert that Ianto was talking about. "Just outside of the city, probably in one of those farms out there." He clicked on the area and enlarged the image. "Ianto, call Gwen and Owen. Tosh won't be joining us today."

"Where's she gone? Is she okay?"

"Dammit Ianto!" Jack pounded the table. "Just call Gwen and Owen." He pressed a couple of more keys, triangulating the precise location of the alert and bringing up the details that their rift monitor was collecting.

"What can I do, Jack?" asked Rose, coming up behind him and peering at the screen.

"Pray that this isn't a Time Lord coming through."

"That's useless," said Rose.

"Then go downstairs and get a gun. And meet me right back here-we need to get onsite."

"We can't use violence against his people," said Rose. It didn't need to be said who she was referring to.

"You've picked your side, Rose. We're going to play by my rules now, not his."

"They don't need to die. We can't kill someone who's just been born!" cried Rose.

"They've already had their chance. We don't get seconds," said Jack sternly. "That's not how life is supposed to be," he added quietly.

Rose still hovered between the door and the computer screen.

"Humans, the race that the Doctor loves more than any other, are about to be wiped out because of the greed and manic power of his race. He doesn't want this Rose, you know that. But he isn't here and this is up to us. We have to save the world now. With violence if we have to."

She nodded and strode out of the room.

"Ianto!" called Jack. "Get the car. We're leaving in T minus thirty seconds."

Rose, Gwen, and Owen squeezed into the backseat, each holding various equipment. Rose was toting a large machine gun, Owen his medical kit and two small handguns, and Gwen had taken charge of Tosh's handheld computer and was relaying information to Jack and Ianto. There was also a handgun lying on her lap. "There's definitely some type of ship coming through," she was saying, "But the computer doesn't recognize the origin."

"Time Lord," said Jack. "Step on it, Ianto."

Ianto shoved down the accelerator as they hit the freeway, headed towards the beeping dot on Tosh's computer.

"Can you get us a visual?" asked Jack.

Gwen pressed a couple buttons on the computer. "Shit. I don't really know how to use this. It's more Tosh's area of specialty."

"Can I see it?" asked Rose, holding out her hand.

Gwen looked at her sceptically but shrugged and handed it over.

Rose pressed her finger to the computer's touch screen, bringing up a menu that Gwen hadn't been able to find. She tapped three buttons. "There's no CC-TV coverage in the area. Not even a house, it doesn't look like. We're just going to have to see what it is when we get there."

Jack swore.

"How'd you do that?" asked Gwen, taking the computer away from Rose.

"Easy. It's basically just a cell phone with all sorts of special applications. I just clicked what I thought would lead me to what Jack wanted."

"This is nothing like a cell phone!" said Gwen emphatically. "It's a really high-tech piece of equipment that Tosh designed specially. There's only two like it in the world, and the other is back at the hub in case anything happens to this one."

Jack laughed. "'Atta girl, Rose."

Gwen frowned.

She grinned. "I've got plenty of practice with high-tech one of a kind equipment." She tried to catch Jack's eye in the rear-view mirror. "You don't think another TARDIS could be coming through, one that's not the Doctor's?"

Jack didn't answer.

Ianto pulled over on the side of the road and parked the car. "Everyone out! We've got about a hundred meters to walk."

"The computer's gone blank!" cried Gwen.

"What?" asked Jack sharply, slamming his door.

"It's not reading anything anymore. It all just disappeared."

"It's probably already through," said Owen, tossing his med kit back into the car and taking one of his guns out of the holster.

"Alright!" cried Jack. "Guns out. Everyone, after me." He stepped into the field and was instantly swallowed by the tall grass.

Rose followed behind Jack, then Owen, Gwen, and Ianto bringing up the rear. Jack walked quickly for the first seventy-five meters but came to a sudden stop. "We're going to circle it," he whispered. "It's supposed to be twenty-five meters ahead. Gwen, circle around and come in from the East, Owen, you take the West. I'll come in behind it, from the South. Ianto, you and Rose can take the direct approach." Jack dashed off to the East with Gwen and Owen split the other direction. Rose found herself alone with Ianto, who she didn't think liked her very much.

Not wanting to talk to him, she walked ahead. The twenty-five meters passed quickly. Though she had half been expecting it, she was taken completely by surprise at the sight of a familiar blue TARDIS sitting in the middle of the cornfield. Gwen and Owen had already arrived and had their guns aimed at the door. Ianto pointed his towards the door as well.

She couldn't help herself. She didn't hear the voices of the others as she dropped her gun and reached for the door of the spaceship. It looked exactly the same as his TARDIS. More importantly, it _felt_ the same as his TARDIS.

"Rose! Don't!" called Jack, running around to the front of the spaceship.

She didn't listen. She pulled open the door and was greeted with the familiar hum and glow found only in the interior of the TARDIS, but it didn't seem like anyone was home. "Hello?" she called.

She felt a hand grab her wrist and tug her backwards out of the TARDIS. "What do you think you're doing?" asked Jack harshly, pulling the TARDIS door shut behind her.

"It's the TARDIS. I know it is. It just feels right," said Rose, pulling her wrist out of Jack's hand.

"We don't know who's in there," said Jack. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

"There's no one in there," said a familiar voice. "She's parked."

Everyone whirled around and pointed their guns at the voice that had spoken. Rose's jaw dropped. Jack's face mirrored hers.

"Doctor?" Rose asked, astounded.

Gwen, Ianto, and Owen looked confused, but lowered their guns at Jack's signal. This was not the same Doctor who they had met earlier in the day. This one looked much different, like he was from the North. He wore a black leather jacket and had much less hair. His ears stuck out a bit. He wasn't smiling and didn't seem quite as friendly.

"Rose. I can't stay for long or else they'll know I'm here. Listen carefully: I didn't think that I was going to do it. I'm sorry that you have to clean up this mess now." He looked up at Jack. "Oh, it's you. She finally told you, did she?"

Rose blushed crimson.

"Oh. I've stuck my foot in it. Nevermind. They're going to stage an invasion. Your planet is so full of war that they'll decide that you're a worthy adversary and they will infiltrate. I don't know when, but soon."

"What do we do?" asked Rose.

"You fight."

Rose opened her mouth.

"I know. Hypocrite," the Doctor pointed at himself. "Oh, Rose Tyler. You are going to fight and you are going to win. You've got to set this world straight."

"Lemme guess," said Rose. "It'll be…"

"Fantastic!" the Doctor finished.

"Hey!" said Rose as the Doctor made to get back into his TARDIS. "Where am I?"

"Off visiting that old boyfriend of yours. Told you I had to go to the bathroom. We're getting fish and chips here in a minute. Please don't bring him along."

"What?" Rose laughed. The door to the TARDIS shut and it dematerialized.

"Jack?" ventured Gwen. "Who was that?"

The group started walking back towards the car. "Remember how I said that Time Lords have regenerative abilities? You just met the body of the Doctor before he transformed into the one you met. Same mind though."

Gwen looked confused but didn't say anything.

"So we've got to create an army?" asked Owen.

"Looks that way," replied Jack. He glanced towards Ianto. "Bring us back to the hub."

They loaded their guns into the trunk of the car. Gwen and Owen slid into their seats. Jack and Rose stayed outside.

"What was it that you've been meaning to tell me?" asked Jack.

Rose blushed. "Oh, er—it's nothing." She looked at her feet. "Just, you know…the usual."

"Oh?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Jack, you're such a Casanova. You don't need to hear it from me too."

"Too? Who says there are any others?"

Ianto slowly opened his car door, swearing to himself that he wouldn't get angry or upset about what Jack had just said.

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	7. Harriet Jones: Prime Minister

Harriet Jones: Prime Minister

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"We've got to get in touch with UNIT," said Jack as they pulled up behind headquarters. "Gwen, that's you. Call them up, tell them that it's Torchwood and we've got an emergency. I'll want to speak with the head honcho as soon as you get him on the line."

"Got it," said Gwen, slamming the car door and heading into the Hub.

"Owen, I think you'll need to talk to the government. Get Whitehall on the line. You're going to want to talk to the Prime Minister, a Harriet Jones," instructed Jack, striding in to the Hub with the remainder of the team.

"Okay. What do you want me to say?"

"There is a threat of alien attack and she needs to prepare her army. If that doesn't get her on the line, I don't know what will."

"Let me do it," interrupted Rose. "I know her personally."

Owen stared at her. "You _know_ the Prime Minister?"

"Of course. We had an encounter with the Slitheen family from Raxacoricofallapatorius," Rose shrugged.

"Okay," said Jack. "Rose, you call Downing Street. Owen, instead you can start calling hospitals and telling them to start preparing for a massive influx as soon as the first attack comes."

"I'm on it," said Owen, putting on a headset while Rose took up position at Tosh's desk.

"Ianto?"

Ianto walked to stand in front of Jack.

"I want you to do research on Gallifrey. What kind of weapons do they use? What has been their plan of attack in the past? What's the population and how many of them can be considered soldiers? Find out what we're up against here."

"You mean, she can't do that too?" asked Ianto, glaring at Rose's back.

"Now is not the time for this, Ianto," warned Jack.

"When is the time?" It was like Ianto exploded. Everyone turned to look at him, red-faced and shouting at Jack. "You just let outsiders come in here and you give them jobs just like they are one of us. She is not one of us! And then, you boss the rest of us around like it's no big deal, but here's this outsider who's allowed to do whatever the hell she wants just because she's your friend from some other life that you don't even tell us about. You are never as excited as when you're about to disappear, or you've just come back, or they are coming to you. What about us, Jack? What about me?"

Jack took a step towards Ianto, who instinctively stepped backwards. "This is not the time to let things get personal. There is going to be a war."

"Damn the war!" shouted Ianto. "There is always some kind of war. We are always threatened and the five of us always manage to stop it before anything gets really bad. I am tired of being your go-to boy for coffee and sex."

The room became dead silent.

"You are not just a coffee boy, Ianto," said Jack, sighing.

"It sure feels like it. You know, why don't you just let little miss time traveller call the Prime Minister and do the research. I'm going to go home. I think I'll visit my sister. She, at least, appreciates me." Ianto stalked out of the room and the door slowly slid shut behind him.

"Shit!" cried Jack, kicking the nearest wall. He noticed the three pairs of eyes that were staring at him. "Get back to work!"

Gwen and Owen turned back to their stations immediately, trying to convince the people answering the phone that yes, Torchwood was a real thing and that yes, they had government clearance and should be allowed to talk to the top ranked person of the various agencies that they were calling. Rose was not so quick to turn back to her station. She removed her headset and walked over to where Jack was sulking against a wall.

"Sounds like there are others, Jack," she said, leaning next to him.

Jack sighed. "Just him."

"Do you love him?"

"He loves me."

"That's not what I asked."

Jack didn't say anything.

"He sees me as a threat," stated Rose.

"That's because I've shared more of my life with you. You know the time travelling side of me and the Torchwood side of me. Ianto only knows the Torchwood side of me. I don't want him to know more than that."

"Why?"

"Because I just want to keep my two sides separate."

"You can't keep them separate anymore, Jack. They're interlinked now. You can't keep me separate," she said quietly.

"You've got Mickey."

Rose snorted. "I think you're confused, mate. That ended a while ago."

"I thought that me and Ianto ended a while ago. But he's like this bad habit that I can't kick."

"Do you love him, Jack?"

Jack was quiet, concentrating on making and releasing a fist with his left hand. "No," he whispered. "I don't think so. I just don't want to feel the never-ending loneliness."

Rose grabbed his hand and pried his fingers out of a fist. "You don't have to be lonely forever, Jack."

Jack looked at Rose through sad and tired eyes. "Let's get back to work. We need to talk to the Prime Minister."

Rose looked at him sadly. "You need to get out of here. C'mon, I'll drive. We'll go meet with her in person."

Jack nodded, preoccupied with his mixed feelings for Ianto. Rose spoke to Owen and Gwen, saying that'd they be back by nightfall but were going to Downing Street themselves. She instructed them to start research after they'd finished doing what Jack had assigned them. Rose grabbed Jack's arm and led him out of the hub. Only as she was getting into the driver's seat did Jack finally seem to come out of his trance.

"Whoa, whoa. Who said that you could drive?"

"I'm a good driver," said Rose defensively.

"Right," said Jack sarcastically. "Move."

Rose switched places with Jack, who started the car and tore off down the road. "How are you feeling, Jack?" she asked.

"I'm alright," he said.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." They drove on in silence for twenty minutes before Jack finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry you had to witness that."

"It's okay," said Rose, not knowing how else to respond.

"Ianto gets…touchy. He lost his girlfriend, Lisa, a while ago and he was really torn up about it. I think he came to me to help dull that pain."

"Why did you let him, if you knew that you didn't love him?" asked Rose.

"I'm lonely, Rose. I've got the five people around me and sometimes I have you and the Doctor. But that's it. I stay locked up in Torchwood almost every hour of every day. You get sort of starved for contact when you're put into that position."

It was Rose's turn not to speak. She knew how she felt about Jack. She'd known since the day she first met him, but she'd never mentioned it to anyone, knowing that she wouldn't be lucky enough to end up with Jack full-time. The Doctor must have guessed her feelings. She did get awfully happy every time Jack showed up and felt depressed for a couple days after he left. She'd tried to hide it from him, though. She loved the Doctor too, but not the same way she felt about Jack. The Doctor was her best friend, and sometimes she felt like she could end up spending the rest of her life with him, she felt like she could love him romantically. But now, she was with Jack and the Doctor had gone and done something insane. "I could stay," she said quietly.

"The Doctor needs you," said Jack.

"You need somebody too."

Jack reached over and squeezed her hand. He slowed the car and skilfully parallel parked it on the street. "Ready to introduce me to the Prime Minister?"

Rose grinned. "You'll like her."

They got out of the car and approached 10 Downing Street. They were greeted by a pair of guards.

"We're here to see the Prime Minister," said Rose.

"She is not taking guests," said one of the guards.

"Tell her that it's Rose Tyler and I have urgent news about the Doctor. I guarantee you that she'll want to see me."

The guards looked dubious.

"Listen, if you don't at least try, I am going to stand out here all day and sing to you." She sang a few notes to demonstrate how painful this would be for the guards. "Not press that little button on your earpiece and tell the Prime Minister that I'm here to see her."

The guards looked at each other and shrugged. One raised his hand to his earpiece and talked quietly into it while Jack and Rose stood by patiently. After a few moments he looked quite surprised. "Let them in," he told the other guard.

"Like I said," said Rose smugly.

Rose and Jack were ushered into the building by one of the guards and escorted to a sitting area where they were instructed to wait for the Prime Minister to be ready. Another guard was watching them from his post and a pleasant looking secretary eyed them from behind her desk. Jack fit in with the décor of the room, while Rose, in her jeans and tee-shirt, did not appear quite as regal.

The secretary's telephone rang. She spoke for a moment before hanging up. "The Prime Minister will see you now," she said to Rose and Jack. She stood up to lead them to the door.

"Don't bother," said Rose. "I think we can make it across the room by ourselves."

The secretary sat down as the guard opened the door for them and spoke, "The Prime Minister." Rose and Jack slid through the door, which the guard closed behind them.

Harriet Jones was seated at a desk at the far end of the room. She smiled when she saw Rose. She waited until they got slightly closer before standing up.

"Harriet, this is Captain Jack Harness," introduced Rose.

Harriet held up an ID card. "Harriet Jones, Prime Minister," she said. "Nice to meet you, Captain." She motioned at the two chairs in front of her desk. "Please sit." Rose and Jack sat. "I hear you have news of the Doctor."

"Indeed," said Jack. "The Doctor has acquired the power to bring his planet back to life. He has left Earth, despite the protestations of Rose and myself, and is determined to bring the Time Lord race back to life. Fortunately, a Doctor from our past has found us and has warned us that the Time Lords will strike. He couldn't give us a better guess of when than soon. We need all armies at attention, ready to fight back whenever the attack comes."

Harriet blinked a couple times. "Our Doctor, the one who saved us from the Slitheen, is going to help in the destruction of our world? This is some sort of sick joke."

"He's not lying, Ms. Jones," said Rose. "The Doctor just wants his people back. He doesn't understand that it'll result in the destruction of Earth. We've tried to talk reason into him, but he's taken a sympathetic Torchwood employee with him and they're intent on seeing the birth of a world."

"Is there no way to contact him?"

"We don't know where he is. He could be anywhere in time or space," said Jack.

"Okay. I'll put the national army on red alert. Have you contacted UNIT?"

"We've got our people talking to them as we speak," said Rose.

"And what kind of weapons have you lot got? Torchwood is a big name in alien technology. There must be something you can do," said Harriet.

"We're doing all we can from our side," said Jack. "We're monitoring any abnormalities and as soon as we detect anything of consequence, we will notify UNIT, the army, and the government. Until then, all we can do it wait and prepare."

"Prepare for what exactly?" asked Harriet.

"Anything," said Rose.

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